🔗 Share this article

Valuable sculptures and cultural objects have been removed from Syria's National Museum in Damascus, sources confirm.

The robbery was noticed on the start of the week, when employees allegedly found that a doorway had been forced from the inside.

The half-dozen missing sculptures were made of marble and traced back to the ancient Roman times, a source informed the Associated Press.

Cultural heritage officials said it had launched a probe to establish the "events surrounding the loss of a group of artifacts", and that steps had been enacted to improve protection and monitoring systems.

The chief of national security in Damascus province, Brig-Gen Osama Atkeh, was cited by the official media as stating that law enforcement were probing the robbery, which he said had focused on several "archaeological statues and valuable objects".

He noted that museum protectors at the institution and other individuals were being interviewed.

The Damascus Museum, which was created in the early twentieth century, holds the primary cultural treasures in Syria.

It contains clay cuneiform tablets tracing back to the 14th Century BC from an ancient city, where evidence of the oldest known linguistic system was uncovered; early centuries CE classical statues from historical site, one of the most important ancient sites of the classical era; and a 3rd Century AD Jewish temple that was constructed at another archaeological site.

The museum was forced to close in the early 2010s, a year after the start of the devastating civil war. Most of the collection was removed and stored at secret locations to ensure their safety.

It reopened partially in 2018 and resumed full operations in the beginning of the year, a month after rebel forces overthrew the Assad regime.

All six of the country's cultural landmarks were affected or significantly impacted during the internal struggle.

The militant faction demolished multiple ancient buildings and historical sites at the ancient city, stating that they were un-Islamic. The cultural organization denounced the destruction as a war crime.

Countless cultural items were also destroyed or taken from archaeological sites and cultural institutions.